Pages

Daily Archives for October 1, 2014

Projects evolve out of circumstances such as: Capital to invest, Land or property requiring a higher return, Experience, or Aspiration to venture out. A person (the ‘client’) often comprehends the potential, when familiar with such circumstances of the project. But the same person, however, finds it extremely difficult to formulate and manage a project (planning + execution + operation aspects of it). Services of experts are required to structure a project.

New projects more often than not, evolve from the investment vs return studies by a financial expert, who also identifies other resources required for the project. Projects involving building of physical assets cannot be formulated or detailed by a financial expert. Such projects require multi disciplinary engineering contribution of technocrats. Project definition exercises are prompted by the client.

PROJECT CONSULTANTS

Project consultants are multi disciplinary experts, and have the capacity to check the feasibility and viability of a project from many different considerations. Project consultants, though detail the project more intensively, in areas familiar to their domain.

Clients sometimes have good comprehension of routine projects, and may directly retain a Design professional. A designer is then required to formulate the project. A good designer must have the multi disciplinary capacity to judge the scale, scope and technicalities of a project, often even before a formal design-scheme can occur. Such proficiency equips a designer to deal with larger and complex situations in future.

Project consultants, define agencies that can design, supply, fabricate and operate various systems of a project. They specify the nature of various professional services required, modalities for selecting appropriate experts, and create outline for individual assignments. Project consultants, if authorized by their clients may even supervise and coordinate the agencies through the planning, design, construction, and operations phases.

Project definition exercise starts with formation of a –Project’s facts file. It is developed further as a -Project report or Project profile report, and ends as an evaluation of the completed project a -Historic report.The project definition work at all levels is carried out by the same expert, or on each occasion, a new set of experts are called in.

PROJECT’S FACTS FILE

A project consultant (financial, technocrat, or designer) compiles a file, stating all the facts of the project. The project’s facts file, to be intelligible to a wider section of users like, non-experts, clients etc., is intentionally made very simple. It is concise, though may contain few graphical views or charts. A Multimedia presentation of it is also made to achieve different purposes such as to put forth the nature of the project, entice a client, demonstrate design professionals’ competence to handle such jobs, convince the sanctioning authorities, procure resources, etc.

All design parameters, concepts, etc. start from this facts-file. Once a project is approved, the original creator of the facts file may not have any role, and someone else is asked to create a detailed project report or project profile report.